ABC’s cumbersomely titled “How To Live With Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life)” had an encouraging premiere on Wednesday night, though it was the latest series low for “American Idol” still carrying FOX to victory.

Wednesday night also saw positive numbers for ABC’s “Modern Family” and “Nashville” and “The Middle,” while CBS’ entire lineup was down a hair.

Among adults 18-49, FOX averaged a 3.0 rating for Wednesday night, beating the 2.4 rating for CBS in the key demographic. ABC was a close third with a 2.3 key demo rating, followed by NBC’s 1.5 rating and the 0.8 key demo rating for The CW.

Overall, FOX averaged an estimated 11.48 million viewers to go with a 7.0 rating/11 share for Wednesday, topping CBS’ 6.2/10 and 9.86 million viewers. ABC was third with 7.18 million viewers and a 4.5/7, which edged out the 4.3/7 and 6.13 million viewers for NBC. The CW averaged 2.41 million viewers and a 1.4/2 for Wednesday.

[Univision averaged 3.87 million viewers and a 1.6 rating among adults 18-49 for Wednesday.]

8 p.m. – “American Idol” averaged 10.96 million viewers and a 2.9 rating among adults 18-49 to lead the 8 p.m. hour for FOX. “Survivor: Caramoan” averaged 9.14 million viewers and a 2.4 key demo rating for second place CBS. ABC was third with “The Middle” (7.165 million and a 2.0 key demo) and “Suburgatory” (5.79 million and a 1.8 key demo), with “Suburgatory” topping last week’s performance by “The Neighbors” and improving in total viewers from its own post-“Modern Family” performance last Wednesday. NBC’s “Dateline” averaged 5.88 million viewers and a 1.4 key demo rating, way up from the numbers for two “Whitney” episodes last week. The CW’s “Arrow” averaged 2.84 million viewers and a 0.9 key demo rating.

9 p.m. – “American Idol” kept FOX in first with 12.01 million viewers, but slipped to second with a 3.2 rating among adults 18-49. CBS’ “Criminal Minds” was second overall with 10.68 million viewers and third with a 2.8 key demo rating. ABC won the hour in the key demo and finished a close third overall with “Modern Family” (10.59 million and a 4.1 key demo) and the premiere of “How To Live With Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life)” (8.36 million and a 2.9 key demo rating). [That “How To Live With Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life)” result was comparable in the key demo to the “Don’t Trust the B” premiere last spring and higher in total viewers and far better than what “Suburgatory” has been doing there.] NBC’s “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” averaged 6.24 million viewers and a 1.6 key demo rating in fourth. On The CW, “Supernatural” dropped from last week with 1.98 million viewers and a 0.8 key demo rating.

10 p.m. – “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” averaged 9.76 million viewers and a 2.1 rating among adults 18-49 to lead the 10 p.m. hour for CBS. NBC’s “Chicago Fire” averaged 6.26 million viewers and a 1.6 key demo rating, compared to 5.59 million viewers and a 1.7 key demo rating for ABC’s “Nashville.”

All ratings information comes from preliminary Fast National Nielsen data, which includes live and same-day DVR viewing. All numbers are subject to change.

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The numbers for HTLWYP(FTROYL) is surprisingly good. I guess not many read the reviews. But then, B@Apt.23 premiere also got the same ratings and it’s gone now.

Dan, any opinion about Deadline’s news about USA Network’s interest in Happy Endings. Is it the usual rumor or is there any truth in it?

By: dan

04.04.2013 @ 4:42 PM

Balaji K – Deadline’s “news” about “Happy Endings” is 100% a standard Deadline planted story. Yet that doesn’t mean there couldn’t ultimately be some truth there. USA wants to get into the comedy business and has for some time. Rescuing “Happy Endings” would be *a* solution. It’s a dumb solution, because “Happy Endings” doesn’t get good enough ratings to play on USA either, but it would make a statement, which may be what USA wants to do.

-Daniel

By: rugman11

04.04.2013 @ 4:46 PM

Nikki Finke has long been criticized as being a shill for Sony. She was reporting a potential pickup for Breaking In very early on (which did end up being correct, just three months later).

At this point, I think Dan’s right that, while possible, it’s probably not worth getting our hopes up. Especially since Happy Endings recent ratings have been worse than what USA typically expects from its shows.

By: pog

04.04.2013 @ 5:45 PM

I’ll freely admit that I hadn’t read the reviews and watched it mainly because I’ve liked Sarah Chalke in stuff before. Boy was that a mistake, one of the worst sitcom pilots I’ve seen in a while, and Chalke looked terrible: borderline anorexic. Let’s just say I won’t be bothering next week and I’ll bet many of those who watched it last night won’t either.

By: Stormshadow4life

04.04.2013 @ 6:09 PM

Very interested to see tomorrow’s #s for Hannibal.
I want to watch the show….but if it ends up being the next NBC 10pm Bomb….I won’t bother